Film Screening of Rocks in My Pockets, with Director Signe Baumane
Thursday, October 22 | 6 – 8 pm
132 Performing Arts & Humanities Building

The Department of Visual Arts Visiting Artist Program presents a screening of the film Rocks in My Pockets (88 minutes), followed by a question and answer session with the director, Signe Baumane.

Rocks in My Pockets is a poignant and often hilarious tale of mystery, mental health, redemption and survival, based on true events surrounding the filmmaker, the women in her family, and their battles with depression and madness:

Latvia, the late 1920’s. Anna, a young woman, pretty and educated, falls in love with an adventurous entrepreneur, 30 years her senior. But with marriage comes great jealousy, and the entrepreneur hides Anna away in the forest, far from other men, where she bears him eight children. Anna is a pillar of strength, defying the hardships of the Great Depression and Soviet and Nazi invasions. But something inside her is terribly wrong.

Years later, Signe, a young artist, asks her father, “How did my grandmother die?” Her father is evasive. His seven siblings are evasive, as well. Signe strongly suspects that Anna committed suicide. Clues of mental illness had always leaked through the family stories. Signe’s suicidal fantasies get her locked away for four months in a Soviet mental institute. Three of her cousins, all women, battle madness, as well. Could there be a link between Anna and the four granddaughters? Defying the stigma that silences so many, Signe takes us on an animated journey deep into her own depression where she looks to confront the family demons.

Signe Baumane is an independent animator known for her controversial films on the subjects of sex, pregnancy, dentists and madness. Born in Latvia in 1964, she studied Philosophy at the University of Moscow and then began making animated films. In 1995, she moved to New York, working with Bill Plympton on several shorts and features. She continued producing her own short films in the USA, including Dentist(2005), Teat Beat of Sex (2007-2008), and Birth (2009). He sensual humor and bold feminism have made a mark in the independent animation world, most recently with her animated feature memior, Rocks in My Pockets, which has gathered awards and screening laurels at numerous festivals worldwide.

Admission is free.